J.C. Penney ( JCP) advanced 6% to $14.01 even after the Plano, Texas-based company reported a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss, as there are signs that perhaps the struggling department store chain is finally starting to turn things around.

TJX Cos. ( TJX) gained 6.9% to $54.24 after the discount retailer and owner of TJ Maxx reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and raised its full-year earnings outlook to $2.74 to $2.80 a share from $2.70 and $2.78 a share as thrifty shoppers flocked to its chains.

Investors hope to gain more insight into the Fed's stimulus reduction plans through the Federal Open Market Committee's July minutes to be published Wednesday as well as from any key developments out of the Kansas City Fed's annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, which begins on Thursday.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury was rising 18/32, diluting the yield to 2.819% and taking a breather from the steep, tapering-fear triggered selloffs of the prior sessions as the emerging market equities sank overnight on these anxieties and triggered a flight to quality.

"We need a little more hard data and a lot more information from the Fed before this wave of uncertainty will die down," Andrew Wilkinson, the New York-based chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak wrote in a note. "Regardless of whether or not the September FOMC meeting delivers the onset of tapering, which we think it will, what we do know is that the Fed wants to dispense with the program at some point during 2014."

December gold futures rose $6.90 to settle at $1,372.60 an ounce and October crude oil futures fell $1.75 to $105.11 a barrel.